Together Bound Page 12

Todd snapped his fingers a few inches above the cocoon. Again there was no reaction other than eyes blinking steadily, though the man’s eyes didn’t appear to be focusing, and they didn’t follow the movements of his hand. His skin was pale and sort of waxy in appearance. His lips had a bluish tinge and his breathing was quick and shallow. “I don’t think he’s conscious. Nothing but a shell.” After standing up, Todd moved back a few steps and brushed dirt off his legs. “Hey, you okay?”

  Nick was staring wide-eyed at the cocoon. He slowly dragged his gaze away from the cocoon and to Todd. A shiver rippled through the thick muscles of his back and shoulders. He nodded.

  “Tomorrow is a reception. There’ll be quite a few important people there. This thing goes after people who are young and athletic for quick, short-term satisfaction, and for longer periods it takes people like the chancellor, someone with some sort of power. If it’s going to jump hosts, I’m betting it’ll target its next one tomorrow night. Until then, we’ll have to keep up our cover or tip it off. While the reception is going on, we’ll come down here, put this guy out of his misery. That should draw the kelbit, and we can trap him, end him.” Todd’s blood ran hot with the thought of killing this monster.

  “All right.” Nick stared at the ground.

  “Nicky? Buddy, if there is something you need to tell me…”

  “I hope we never see one of these again.” Nick followed a step behind Todd, glancing back at the cocoon as they made their way back through the tunnels to the stairs.

  “When I get my hands on this thing, it’s going to die, slow and painful.” The roughness of his own voice, how the words growled out of his mouth unbidden, hit him so hard he stumbled. The need to dominate—compete—win—settled like a thick fog in Todd’s brain.

  Nick jerked sideways, stepping away from Todd. “Todd? Are you sure you’re all right? Aren’t you the one always teaching me we do what we do, we kill them, but we don’t ever torture them? Quick and merciful.”

  Todd stopped, straightened, and drew in a deep breath. Where the hell had that even come from? “Yeah, Nick, I didn’t mean…”

  What had he meant? Todd’s vision swam for a few seconds, his heart thumped hard in his chest, and Nick looked at him with a wild-deer-facing-down-a-wolf expression. Todd nudged Nick into motion, staying a bit behind his mate, trying to quiet what rampaged through his entire system.

  Once they were clear of the tunnels and the dorms, Todd’s head cleared somewhat. He left a rather confused and befuddled mate at the slave dining hall and jogged around the grounds a few times to burn off nervous energy, not understanding in the slightest where those jitters came from. He thought it was being near Nick that made his brain overload and go all fuzzy on him, but not so. Every man and woman he passed who was even the slightest bit attractive to him had his mind working overtime, spinning out fantasy after fantasy of what he’d do to them, how he’d overpower them, break them, take their bodies and use them for whatever pleasure Todd craved.

  Todd sprinted to the employee dorm and didn’t stop until he was safely inside his own quarters. He shut the door firmly, locked it, and checked the lock twice before he turned and leaned against the door, panting in painful breaths. His lungs ached right along with the rest of his body. Legs shaking so badly they couldn’t support him anymore, Todd slid down until his butt connected with the floor.

  Pitching forward, Todd pressed his face into both palms, the heels of his hands pushed against his closed eyes, trying desperately to get the images out of his head. He hadn’t looked at anyone, wanted anyone other than Nick since before he’d gone and claimed Nick, taken him as his own. Now his entire being was permeated by a need that consumed him to take control, a desire to compete and win, to destroy some unknown opponent.

  The room didn’t have enough air for him to fill his lungs. Todd was intensely loyal to Nick; he didn’t want anyone else. Nick’s jealousy was unfounded, though Todd understood Nick’s need to protect what was his. Images of the woman sliding her hand up and down his arm the night of the cotillion, combined with the low rumble of Nick’s voice when Todd had arrived at the dorms that night, fueled his need to conquer.

  Todd’s head snapped up, and he looked around the room. Conquer what?

  His entire body was on fire from the inside out. What was happening to him? This wasn’t him. He didn’t do things, feel things like this: violent, brutal. Ever since he’d started having sex, Todd had prided himself on pleasing his partners, and that went more than double for Nick. He wanted Nick happy and satisfied, not dominated and frightened. Now the only things he could think of were ways to take not only Nick, but anyone. Use them, get pleasure from them, and toss them aside for the next. If they died in the process of his pleasure, so what?

  The feeling of Nick gasping for breath, writhing and twisting beneath him, warped into one of the women he’d seen earlier, how he could totally dominate her. He was bigger, stronger, a force to be feared and reckoned with. One never ignored or denied.

  Christ, he needed a shower. A really cold shower.

  Todd nearly ran to the bathroom, and stood under the cold onslaught of water until he couldn’t stand it anymore. So cold he was shuddering, he staggered from the shower to the bed and fell face-first. He wrapped himself up in the blankets and let the darkness come.

  He jerked awake at the sound of thunder crashing all around. With a glance at the clock, he saw he’d slept for a few hours. After pushing off the bed on stiff, aching arms, Todd swung around and sat on the edge for a few minutes. He felt better, himself, though slightly hungover. Whatever the hell had affected him so profoundly earlier seemed gone for now. He rubbed the back of his neck, shook off the last bits of sleep, stood up, and got dressed.

  Even though it was early afternoon, the room was swathed in grays, with long shadows inching across the room. Thunder rumbled, coming from nowhere and everywhere at once. The rain hadn’t started yet, but it would soon. Outside his window, Todd saw trees bend and sway in the ever-building wind. This storm wouldn’t blow through quickly and be over, and likely there would be more later that day and into the evening. Todd intended to meet Nick at the school when the classes were released. Nick had been forced to face several of the storms that frightened him all alone. Todd was determined, as soon as Nick was free to leave the school, he wouldn’t be alone in this bad storm.

  He needed more information on how the kelbit hunted, how it found its victims and trapped them, but those details had been sorely lacking in every bit of literature he’d found.

  Watching his reflection closely in the mirror as he shaved, he tried talking it through with himself. “Where did that come from? I was down in the tunnels with Nick; then I was some monster.”

  He wanted to ask Nick to help him sort through the tangled jumble of thoughts in his head, but honestly, he was afraid Nick would never look at him the same again. Todd was on his own for now, trying to figure this out. Alone, lost, unsure for maybe the very first time, Todd needed Nick and couldn’t go to him, ask for his thoughts. Todd needed Nick, and his mate was too far out of his grasp.

  The connection had to be the kelbit, or maybe it was the tunnels or something in the cocoon he’d touched. Todd had no clue. What he did have was a very clear sense that, if he didn’t figure it out damn fast, he’d be consumed from the inside out.

  * * * *

  Nick struggled to concentrate on the children and his job. The building storm wasn’t helping him or them, and with each thundering crash, each splash of lightning to flash across the sky, he struggled to push his own fears aside to keep the kids calm, but it wasn’t working.

  The more he thought about him and Todd in the tunnels earlier that day, the worse his nerves frayed and his mind skittered from one thing to the next. No matter how hard he tried, the images wouldn’t stop flickering across his eyes and through his brain.

  Nick knew Todd, knew him well. Todd was a mess and getting messier. That fact was blindingly clear.

  Th
e kelbit was behind Todd’s actions somehow. Nick didn’t understand how or why but knew right down to his core the kelbit was at the root of Todd’s odd behavior and words. Another thing Nick knew down to his core was that if he told his mate about the kelbit’s attack on him, Todd would charge in with nothing but revenge and fire. Todd was spiraling out of control, not thinking clearly, and that scared Nick. Todd was always in control, always planning things out in calculating detail.

  Now Nick feared Todd would confront the kelbit, challenge it in a rage. It was a battle Todd was likely to lose. He was too overwrought, too out of control. Todd would die, or worse. Either way, Nick would lose his master, his mate, his heart and home. That was something Nick refused to allow. Until he had more information and they could face down this thing together, back one another up, Nick had to keep what had happened buried.

  His disloyalty to his mate aside, with Nick’s horrible indiscretions and the way his body had reacted, he knew Todd would still go after the thing. Todd might never love or touch Nick again, but he would defend Nick to his dying breath. He desperately wished he’d never have to tell Todd, but he knew he would. That was something never to be kept a secret. The best he could hope for was a confession and that Todd would believe him, that he didn’t intend the reaction, didn’t want it. That maybe Todd would let Nick stay in his life, even if it was as nothing but a slave.

  Even if he wasn’t Nick’s mate, Todd would be alive, and that was what mattered the most to Nick.

  He didn’t fully understand the kelbit and was out of options on finding that understanding. They’d have to work with what they had.

  Quite a few of the children, the younger ones, had been picked up by their parents. The storm was strong and getting stronger, and the teachers had decided it was best to close the school early. Nick had no idea what time Todd “worked” until and had no way of finding out. He wasn’t even sure Todd would come for him. Not wanting to travel across the commons to the dorms in the rain, Nick stood in the classroom by the window, watching the lightning split the sky over and over, arms wrapped around his middle in a useless attempt to protect himself.

  The classroom grew darker and darker as more thunderheads rolled in and blotted out the bright summer sky.

  Something moved behind him. The message barely got from Nick’s ears to his brain that the classroom door had been shut and the lock snapped into place when strong fingers gripped the back of his neck and he was shoved forward and down. His chest hit the edge of the desk, sending sharp jabs through to his spine and making it hard to inhale properly.

  A warm, wet tongue swiped across his cheek and down his throat, then under his tunic. The weight of a heavy body pressed against his back and held him flat against the desk as he struggled to breathe.

  “I can taste him on you. How he’s being driven. Getting a little out of control, isn’t he?” The chancellor’s breath hissed hot into Nick’s ear. “Master not himself today?”

  “My…master…is dead…,” Nick ground out and bit back a gasp when the chancellor’s weight pressed down and his chest was smashed even more tightly against the edge of the desk.

  “Your master is mine. Nothing will cover his scent now that I have his attention—and yours.” The chancellor moved again, this time so his face was close to Nick’s. “See, it’s simple. I go after the mate, and every alpha male by nature hates his mate being taken, his authority challenged. They come for me, and—” the Chancellor snapped his fingers once “—then they are both mine. You two are a prime catch. A mate as delicious as you, young, strong, with tons of stamina, I’m sure. And him, whoever he is. A sentry, defiant, dangerous, and so centered on you. I won’t need to take my pleasure anywhere but with the two of you for months.” The chancellor laughed, the fingers of his other hand curling along the line of Nick’s throat, stroking up and down before skimming the line of Nick’s shoulder and biceps. “A rare, special treat for me.”

  Bucking back, Nick tried throwing the thing off, which earned him nothing but having more of the creature’s weight pressing down on him. The edge of the desk ground into his ribs, making him struggle for each breath while sharp pains radiated out to fill his entire body. Heat and desire from the kelbit swirled around him, filling him, suffocating and trying to consume him. Everywhere the kelbit’s tongue touched felt as if liquid fire coursed along its path.

  “No.” Nick coughed the word out more than spoke it, palms against the desk as he tried pushing up.

  “I don’t take no for an answer.” Shifting again, the kelbit grabbed a fistful of Nick’s pants and yanked them down to his knees.

  Its other hand wound in Nick’s hair and pulled so his back arched painfully backward and his torso lifted off the desk. His chest now exposed, its tongue skimmed over Nick’s flesh, pinching and teasing at his nipples for a few minutes before traveling up and pushing beyond Nick’s tightly closed lips. The kelbit jerked his head to the side and took advantage of the short gasp, thrusting his tongue deep into Nick’s mouth and shot oily bitterness down the back of his throat.

  Gagging, Nick pressed his eyes tightly shut and wiped his mouth across the desktop when the kelbit’s tongue slid free. Nick’s body ignited against his will. His balls were so heavy they ached. Steady throbbing from between his legs made his stomach clench. Pains shot through his lower back and abdomen; he was that hard.

  Something cool and rigid—Nick had no idea what and didn’t want to know—pressed between his ass cheeks and rubbed against his entrance. The kelbit pulled its hand from Nick’s hair and moved it along Nick’s side, fingers probing the ridges of his ribs and the hills and valleys of his muscles, sending jolts through Nick. After skimming over his hips and across his thigh, the kelbit’s fingers wrapped around Nick’s painfully hard cock, stroking. At the same time, the object pressing against his hole rocked in a steady rhythm.

  The kelbit’s mouth pressed against Nick’s shoulder. Biting down, it groaned.

  “No…I’m not…I won’t…” Nick struggled, but the kelbit’s weight was too great and held him against the desk.

  The wind rattled the windows, and thunder rolled through, making Nick cringe. Lightning flashed, drenching the room in bright bluish light, and vanished, plunging it into hazy grayness in the next instant.

  The kelbit hissed near his ear, again forcing its tongue past Nick’s lips and more of the liquid down his throat before withdrawing. Nick tried so desperately to overcome his body, to regain control and be faithful to Todd, but it was too much. The sensations from the kelbit were assaulting him from everywhere at once. His cock was held prisoner in the creature’s ever-tightening fist. His oversensitive entrance, while not breached, was being stimulated.

  Tears oozing from his eyes, Nick bit down on his lip and refused to make a sound as his cock let loose, pumping and throbbing in the kelbit’s grip.

  All at once everything was gone, the weight, the hands, the combustion of nerves, leaving Nick to slide helplessly to the floor, pulling up his pants and curling around himself. He’d betrayed Todd in the most unforgivable way. Nick belonged to Todd; no one but Todd touched him. No one but Todd brought pleasure to Nick’s body. His entire body jerked when a sob rolled up from his chest. He hated himself for losing control like that. The blazing passion of a few minutes ago was replaced with a shame so deep Nick wanted to die.

  Thunder crashed through the air, and lightning lashed across the sky, brightening the room for a few seconds.

  Rough hands grabbed his hair and one arm, pulling him to his feet. “Now you’re both mine. He’ll never control all those urges to retake you, and then I take you both.” Shaffer’s mouth twitched up into a nasty grin that made Nick shudder. “Come on.”

  Nick had no choice but to stumble after Shaffer as the kelbit jerked and yanked him away from the school and to the sanctuary security building. Nick fought an inner battle between praying Todd was there and would see them and that he wouldn’t. Shaffer didn’t stop until he had slammed through t
he door of the security director’s office and thrown Nick down to the floor.

  “What’s going on? Chancellor, what—” A man Nick recognized as Mr. Witze sprinted from the other side of a desk and reached down to help Nick up, talking to Shaffer at the same time.

  “I’ve had it with this one. Teach him a lesson,” Shaffer snarled. “Leave him there.”

  Witze froze in his tracks. “Chancellor, let me handle this, please.”

  “Give me the key.”

  “Chancellor—”

  “Now!” The chancellor’s hand lashed out and hit a wall.

  Lips pressed into a thin, angry line, Witze moved back to the other side of the desk, opened a drawer, and pulled keys out. He took one off a ring and held it out to the chancellor.

  “Sir, I didn’t do anything.” Nick looked up, pleading with Witze. He didn’t know what was going to happen, but he had an idea that, whatever it was, it wasn’t going to be good. He tried to tell this man the chancellor had attacked him, brutally forced himself onto Nick but the words wouldn’t come out.

  Witze’s gaze dropped to Nick, and his face and eyes softened. “It’ll be all right.” He looked back at the chancellor, expression steeling. “I’m going with you. Those are the regulations.”

  They left the building. Nick was hauled, stumbling and staggering, into the sanctuary and up to one of the solitary shacks. The wind whipped along the treetops, and rain was coming down steadily. The last thing Nick saw before he was shoved into the shack and the door was slammed shut was the chancellor smiling and his face warping into its true form.

  Curled on his side, Nick jumped and shuddered with every crack of thunder pounding through the thin walls of the shack and straight through his chest. He pulled his knees up and turned his head to press his face against the damp wooden floor. The words betrayed Todd rocketed through his head until his entire world narrowed down to his crime. Covering his head and ears with his arms, Nick couldn’t block out the booming of the atmosphere around him or the screaming of his shame inside his head. Each reverberation through the air had him jumping and twitching. His breath came in painful, short gasps. There wasn’t enough air. His body was too alert to every sensation, and the smell of ozone from the lightning filled his nostrils.